This Is The End
by Moment For Life
Summary: In remembrance of those who lost their lives during the Great War. Jack Dawson's story.


**This is for the people who lost their lives to serve for our country and our nation. For those men who fought courageously for our future. For the men who returned from the war and suffered in any way and for the women who kept the country afloat while the men were away.**

 **Lest We Forget.**

 **THIS IS THE END.**

 _At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month the war had ended._

 _At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiegne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure._

 _Jack Dawson sank to the ground, mud caked his body. He had shattered into a million pieces. His eyes closed and his fists pounded into the mud. His helmet fell from his head rolling to one side._

 _It was over. The war was over._

The morning on November 11th was extremely cold and a white frost covered the Front. Jack had been marched with his platoon from Monmouthshire regiment to the next village and was billeting them in a barn.

The Colonel walked in. ''Good day,'' he glanced at his watch, ''it is 10am.'' He watched the faces of the young men before him. ''I am pleased to tell you that in one hour the armistice comes into force and you will be free to return home.''

The news was greeted with silence. Germany had surrendered and they just stood, stunned and bewildered.

At the stroke of eleven the Colonel raised his hand. ''The war is over.''

This time it was met with cheers, tin hats sat on rifles held aloft. The day Jack Dawson had waited for had come at last.

 _April 6th 1917,_

 _USA Congress announced they would be going to war, even though the US wanted to remain neutral. The war had been raging in Europe since July 1914 but the sinking of the Lusitania by German U-Boats in May 1915 had been instrumental in bringing the USA into the war. In July 1917, conscription was introduced in the USA and men were drafted into the army, Jack Dawson was one of these men._

 _Jack Dawson lay in the trenches which he had called home for the last two months. Several sand bags lined the sides of the trenches and on the lip of the trench there were sand bags and barbed wire. The allied and enemy trenches were just about fifty feet apart. Here and there dugouts were literally dug into the earth to provide shelter when the fighting wasn't too intense. Other than that there was little shelter. In summer the trench had been exposed to the hot sun and in winter to pouring rain and snow. The rain filled up the trench and water seeped in through the sides leaving the troops up to their knees in thick, stinking mud that made any movement difficult. There were no sanitation and rats were a problem. Diseases were rife such as dysentery and trench foot. There were no relief for front line troops for weeks on end. Even a near miss from an artillery shell could collapse a trench or cause dugout to collapse burying alive those inside. The nearness of death, the fear of it and smell of it, the horrific sights of shattered bodies, the screams of a friend cut in half and the constant shelling combined to send many men insane either at the time or later in life were what Jack had lived through, his life was literally not worth living._

 _Troops around him slept, some ate, some prayed or sang, while others simply sat and cried. The men here were young, most with wives and children. Jack had no wife or child, just a memory. A memory which haunted him night and day – the memory of Rose. Not a day went by when he hadn't thought of her beautiful face, she was the reason he had managed to stay alive for so long. How he had avoided death he didn't know how. He had killed men; many men which he knew would too have children and a wife. Many of the bodies were just left lying around in trenches and more than once Jack had slept next to a dead man. Many men could not cope and developed `trench fever' which meant they could not stop themselves shaking._

 _Shakily rummaging around in his pack, Jack found what he was looking for, what he looked at night after night. It was the photograph of Rose, his Rose. He stared at her beautiful face, her smile, and her shining eyes. His hands were covered in dirt and mud thick and wet. His face was lined from sleepless nights; dirt covered his cheeks and forehead. His hair was matted in a thick tangled mess, covered in dirt and debris. His shaking hand touched the face of Rose, and he cried harder. When he had first arrived on the Front Line, he had prayed hard for a miracle, for the war to be over but he stopped believing in God a long time ago now. If God did exist, then how could he let such evil live in the world? How could so many innocent men die and go through the hell which he now called his life._

 _Resting his tired head on his pack, Jack gazed at the night's sky, the endless gorgeous stars, and a night like aboard the Titanic when he and Rose had kissed._

 _''Goodnight Rose, I love you.'' He whispered to no one but himself._

It would be another two months before he could go home. The ship passages were full taking men home to all over the world. He had written to Rose to inform her of the wars end, to ensure her of his safety and to let her know that he loved her. For two long and lonely months he settled just outside London and found himself doing odd jobs to make little money. The world had changed since the war. Women were a picture of independence, once destroyed buildings were showing new life and he now stood outside the boarding house which he had called his home. He found a ticket in his hand. Second class; Olympic.

The train to Southampton and then boarding the ship the memories seemed to haunt Jack night after night. The thought of he and Fabrizio here just over six years ago. The thought of Rose trapped in her society life, boarding a ship which she thought was a prison. Instead, it had freed her.

The Olympic was almost identical to her sister ship, although she was a great deal smaller. Memories rushed to Jack as he lay in his berth night after night. He'd had a dream in which Fabrizio had been smiling, laughing, and telling Jack he would be all right and to stop being so scared. He would be seeing Rose soon.

Jack awakened in a cold sweat and could almost feel his best friend's presence in the dark room. Tears flooded from his eyes. Maybe Fabrizio had come to him in his dreams. Maybe he should put everything behind him and concentrate on seeing Rose. Maybe Fabri was right.

After two days at sea, at dusk, an announcement was made that the ship would be coming close to where the Titanic had sunk.

A bunch of people hunched in the drizzle, one holding a wreath.

"God bless those souls who lost their lives on that very tragic night. May they rest forever," a chaplain spoke.

"Amen," the crowd uttered. Some were upset. Others just stood somberly. Jack forced himself to find the strength to join them. This would be his way to say good-bye to Fabrizio properly.

"Who would like to throw the wreath?" the chaplain asked.

Jack thought for a few moments and did something he had thought he never would.

"I would like to." Jack raised his hand and hobbled forward the best he could. The crowd was startled by the sudden appearance of this man, who looked barely old enough to remember the disaster.

Jack noticed the frowns on the faces of the gathered people.

"I was…um…I lost a friend on the Titanic. I would like to say good-bye properly," Jack uttered. Tears formed in his eyes.

The chaplain offered Jack the wreath. He took it somewhat hesitantly. His hands shook violently as he made his way to the deck and looked overboard at the sea. He closed his eyes and could see himself and Rose lying on the driftwood. Tears escaped his eyes and he dropped his crutches to the wet deck.

"Fabri, Tommy, and the other souls who lost their lives that dreadful, horrible night, this is for you-" Jack dropped the wreath into the water and closed his eyes. He no longer wanted to see the ocean. He felt sick to the bottom of his stomach and was glad Rose was not there to witness it.

"May they rest in peace," he whispered heart-wrenchingly. The others gathered there seemed to disappear. It was obvious he had lost someone special and wanted to be alone all except one man. An Italian.

''You in war?''

Jack turned to him. ''Yes.''

The man nodded. ''I see.''

He was silent, gazing out at the sea but now and again he would glance back to Jack. ''You have family?''

Jack nodded slowly. ''A wife.''

He came a little closer and it was then Jack realized the Italian was hobbling. A cane supported his walk and when he blinked he saw the man's left leg below the knee was absent. He took a steady breath.

''You were in France?''

''Yes. I live America four months before war started. I have a family there; my wife and five children.''

Jack pressed his lips together. He felt himself about to choke on the lump in his throat. He thought of the men who wouldn't return, of the men who had died tragically serving their purpose, their family and their country.

There were families all over the world destroyed. Women without husbands, children without fathers and mothers without sons. The world would never be the same again.

Some men may well return home but they would remain a shadow of their former selves. They would shake, vomit and stress. They would re-live the horror of their lives, of seeing men split in two in front of them, of seeing them shot so brutally. They would carry home diseases; trench foot, infections and tuberculous. Some may die on the trip home, others would take their own lives from the sheer horror of what they had endured and others were deemed insane and taken the hospitals to live out their lives in isolation.

Jack shakily held out his hand to the Italian. He shuffled forward and took it. ''Good luck to you.''

''And you, sir.''

Their shake was strong and within seconds they had both broken down to tears. The overwhelming moment destroying their souls. Jack took the man into his arm. They had fought together and they would go home together, joined forever by the horrific memories of the War which changed everything.

Jack was reunited with Rose and she bore their first child just a year later.

On June 28, 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, which stated that the Germans should take full responsibility for the whole war.

Germany was commanded to pay eleven billion, three hundred million pounds back to the other countries, which was the estimated cost of the war.

Germany was stripped of its land and the German economy became weak, although justice was never really to be done.

Men still died in tragic circumstances, leaving widowed women and fatherless children.

Land was destroyed, ships were sunk, and bombs were dropped.

And the world was never the same again.


End file.
